


Grow and Grow and Grow And

by DWEmma



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 15:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6244402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/pseuds/DWEmma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is going on in the Stepmother's head in this Haitian Cinderella variant?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grow and Grow and Grow And

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zdenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/gifts).



“Oh orange tree, grow and grow and grow and orange tree, grow and grow and grow and stepmother is not real mother orange tree.” 

I hear her sing the song as the tree continues to grow up through the cloud layer. My arms were full of oranges, orange juice dripping down my dress, my face sticky with pulp. I had noticed the singing, but I hadn’t noticed the altitude. 

And she was right, I was not her real mother. The ungrateful brat. She was lucky I kept her on after her weakling father died. And who keeps their dead wife buried in the backyard anyhow? Graveyards are the appropriate place for, oh I don’t know, graves. If I’d known about the dead wife in the back yard, I never would have even considered sleeping with him, much less marrying him. 

But he was so handsome. And so proper. The first time we met was at a village function. I was there with my sisters, who were both already married. I was the eldest, and everyone had assumed that I would never marry. He saw me from across the crowd, and he bowed at me, and then winked. It was the cheekiness of the wink that grabbed my heart. I thought my time had passed. I smiled and blushed, and he came over and kissed my hand and introduced himself. I was lost. 

“Oh orange tree, grow and grow and grow and orange tree, grow and grow and grow and stepmother is not real mother orange tree.” 

That brat was the problem. Her father indulged her so much. He bought her sweets, put her in pretty dresses that he couldn’t afford, and that’s one of the reasons that all I was left with was basically a shack. And the mouth to feed. I had to make her work to earn her keep. I had to. 

“Oh orange tree, grow and grow and grow and orange tree, grow and grow and grow and stepmother is not real mother orange tree.” 

And I can feel the air thinning as the tree continues to grow. I look over the edge of the tree. Is it too late to jump? At what point will this magic spell make the tree stop? Will the truck get thick enough to support the height, or will it just splinter, taking me down with it? 

“Grow and grow and grow and”

And the little brat is still singing! That’s so vindictive! I climbed down to the bottom of the branches, but all I saw below was a trunk. Could I slide down it? Was she actually going to kill me? 

I felt my lungs ache as the air grew colder. The tree wasn’t going to crack. And that’s when I saw him. He was standing on the clouds a little way off. He bowed to me, and winked. 

So I stepped off the end of the branch to be with him.

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=300qs6w)

**Author's Note:**

> http://spiritoftrees.org/the-magic-orange-tree


End file.
